Music licensing for corporate videos

Music is the most common reason a corporate video gets taken down. Not because of the edit, but because the track in it was never licensed. Here is what you may actually use in a company video, what a sync licence is, how stock libraries really work and whether AI generated music is safe for a paid campaign.

Key takeaways

• A song from the radio or from Spotify does not belong in a company video. A streaming subscription buys you listening, not the right to publish that track alongside your images.
• Music carries two separate rights: one to the composition and one to the specific recording. Re recording the song yourself solves the second one and leaves the first untouched.
• Pairing music with picture is called synchronisation, and that permission comes from the author or the publisher. Collecting societies handle different uses, such as music played in a venue or at an event.
• Prices from the Slovak market: a custom track from a local composer runs roughly 20 to 100 eur per minute, while licensing a globally known film theme can reach around 1000 eur for two minutes.
• Stock libraries are the sensible route for corporate video, but the licence tier is what matters. Organic content and paid advertising are usually not covered by the same plan.
• With AI generated music the real risk is evidential. If the output is not an authored work, you also hold no exclusive right to stop anyone else from using something identical.

Why can you not use a song from the radio in a company video?

Because you paid for listening, not for use. Those are two different products and their prices differ by orders of magnitude.

The moment a protected track plays in your ad or on your company Instagram, you are using it commercially. Without permission, two things can happen. The smaller one is that the platform blocks the video or places a claim on it and any revenue goes elsewhere. The bigger one is a publisher getting in touch about damages.

Music always comes with two rights. One belongs to the song itself, the melody and lyrics, the other to the particular recording somebody produced in a studio. That is why recording your own cover version does not solve the problem: the recording is now yours, the song still is not.

What is a sync licence and who issues it?

A sync licence is permission to combine a piece of music with moving images. You obtain it from the rights holder of the composition, usually the publisher, and where a specific recording is involved you also need the master side of it.

Here is where companies get caught. Paying a collecting society for music at your conference does not cover the same music in the aftermovie from that event. One licence covers the performance in the room, the other covers publishing the track with your footage. Clients usually discover the difference after uploading to YouTube, when the claim arrives.

In Slovakia the collecting society for musical works is SOZA, and the practical advice is boring but effective: ask before the edit, not after. Written confirmation of what you may use takes days, sorting out a blocked campaign video takes weeks.

What are you actually buying with stock music?

You are buying a licence to use a track, not the track itself. And the scope of that licence is the only thing that matters.

For corporate video, libraries such as Epidemic Sound, Artlist or Musicbed are the sensible route. A subscription gives you a catalogue and the right to use it in your videos. Check three things before the music lands in your edit:

• Scope of use. A basic plan often covers organic content, while paid advertising needs a higher tier. This is the most common hole in a campaign budget.
• What happens after the subscription ends. Most libraries keep already published videos covered but stop you downloading new tracks. Terms differ, so read the ones you are signing.
• The licence certificate. Download it and file it with the project. When a claim lands, that document is the fastest way to clear it.

Epidemic Sound explains the mechanics well in its own guide on how to license music legally, including why royalty free never meant free of copyright.

We archive certificates with every final export. It feels like paperwork until a claim arrives on a video from two years ago and there is nowhere to look.

Can you use AI generated music in a corporate video?

Technically yes, practically with care. The risk is not that somebody sues you for generating a track, it is that you cannot prove what you own.

Copyright law across Europe ties protection to a work created by a human author. A track produced entirely by a model therefore sits in an awkward place: it may not be protected at all, which sounds convenient until you notice the flip side. If it is not an authored work of yours, you have no exclusive right to stop a competitor using something identical, including the same prompt and the same tool.

The second risk is what the model was trained on. If the output sounds suspiciously close to an existing song, you are back at the problem you were trying to avoid.

Our practical rule: use AI music for internal material, test edits and fast social content. For a commercial, an image film or anything running in paid media, use licensed stock or a commissioned track. On a project of that size the price difference is small and the certainty difference is not.

How much does music for a corporate video cost?

From nothing to several thousand eur, and the spread comes down to who owns the track and how widely you want to use it.

On the Slovak market a custom track from a local composer works out at roughly 20 to 100 eur per minute, while a licence for a globally recognised film theme can reach around 1000 eur for two minutes. Stock subscriptions sit far below both, typically tens of eur per month.

The simple rule for company video: a stock subscription covers most needs. A commissioned track earns its place when the brand needs a sound of its own over time, meaning a series of videos, a podcast or a signature theme. At that point the composer pays for themselves, because you stop hunting for something similar on every project.

When is music not worth worrying about at all?

When the video plays silent. And that is a bigger share of content than most people expect.

For social video watched on a muted phone, the edit and the subtitles carry the piece, not the track. We see clients spend an hour choosing music for a video whose viewers will mostly never turn the sound on. That hour belongs to the first three seconds of picture and to readable subtitles instead.

The second case is an interview. When somebody is speaking, music underneath should be nearly inaudible or absent. Silence under a well recorded voice sounds more expensive than a bed competing with the speech.

Frequently asked questions about music licensing for video

Can I use Spotify music in a company video?

No. A streaming subscription is a licence for personal listening, not for using a track in an audiovisual work. For that you need separate permission from the rights holder, or a licence from a stock library.

What does royalty free actually mean?

It means that once you have paid for the licence you do not pay recurring royalties per play. It does not mean the music is free, nor that you may use it anywhere. The scope written in the library's terms still applies.

Do I need a collecting society licence for music on my website?

It depends on where the music came from and how it is used. If you licensed it from a stock library for use in video, that licence governs it. Music used in a venue or at an event is a separate obligation towards the collecting society, which in Slovakia is SOZA.

How do I fight a copyright claim on YouTube?

Dispute it and attach the licence certificate or licence number from the service you got the track from. Most libraries have their own form for this and claims are usually released within days. That is exactly why the certificates get archived, without them you are arguing with an algorithm.

If you are preparing a video that will run in a campaign and you are unsure whether the music licence covers it, write to us. It is far cheaper to sort out before the edit than after a takedown. Our production services and details are on the contact page.